- Gumi City Council said the ‘Robot Supervisor’ stopped working after falling down the stairs
A civil servant robot working for a municipality in South Korea became unresponsive after apparently throwing itself down a flight of stairs, as locals now mourn the country’s first robot suicide.
The Gumi Municipal Council announced that the robot is now defunct after it fell down a two-meter staircase last Thursday around 4 p.m.
The ‘Robot Supervisor’ was found destroyed in the stairwell between the first and second floors of the municipal building, Gumi City said, providing photos from the accident scene.
Witnesses saw the officer mysteriously “circling in one spot as if something was there” before it occurred, but the exact cause of the fall remains under investigation, a city council official said.
“Pieces have been collected and will be analyzed by the company,” the official said, adding that the robot had “assisted in daily document deliveries, city promotion and providing information” to local residents.
The robot supervisor was created by Bear Robotics, a Californian robot waiter startup
“It was officially part of City Hall, one of us,” another official said. “It worked diligently.”
Local media headlines questioned the apparent robot suicide, asking, “Why did the zealous civilian official do this?” or ask ‘was the work too hard’ for the robot?
People online responded to the news by asking: ‘If the workload had been too much would he have spun around for a long time and then run down the stairs?’, while another said: ‘I pray that scrap can rest in peace’ .
The robot, which was commissioned in August 2023, was one of the first to be deployed in this way in the city.
Created by Bear Robotics, a Californian robot waiter startup, the robot worked from 9am to 6pm and had its own civil service card.
Unlike other robots, which can usually only use one floor, the Gumi City Council robot can summon an elevator and move floors on its own.
The council said the robot had ‘helped with daily document deliveries, city promotion and providing information’ to local residents
South Korea is one of the most enthusiastic users of robots worldwide.
According to the International Federation of Robotics, it has the highest robot density in the world, with one industrial robot for every ten employees.
The Gumi City Council says it has no plans to hire a second robot officer at this time.